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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC09400.147 |
| From Archive Folder | Collection of letters of the first African American to serve a full term in the Senate |
| Title | Jas B Townsend to Blanche Kelso Bruce asking his support in making sure that the current candidate for sheriff in his county J.H. Campbell does not get confirmed |
| Date | 14 December 1878 |
| Author | Townsend, J.B. (fl. 1878-1880) |
| Recipient | Kelso Bruce, Blanche |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Content Description | Townsend is writing to Senator Bruce asking his support in making sure that the current candidate for sheriff in his county J.H. Campbell, also the incumbent does not get confirmed. He starts the letter by telling the Senator that he was the "first White Man in my County that voted an Open Republican Ticket" and that as a result he was "ostracized, and even Burnt in Effigy upon the streets in my town" by the "present incumbent of the Post Office of this Place" |
| Subjects | African American History African Americans in Government Congress Law Reconstruction Government and Civics Republican Party Politics Election Radio Post Office |
| People | Bruce, Blanche Kelso (1841-1898) Townsend, J.B. (fl. 1878-1880) |
| Place written | Grenada, Mississippi |
| Theme | Government & Politics; African Americans |
| Sub-collection | The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1860-1945 |
| Additional Information | Blanche Kelso Bruce was born into slavery near Farmville, Prince Edward County, Va. on March 1 1841. He was tutored by his master's son, but left his master at the beginning of the civil war and taught school in Hannibal Mo. After the civil war Bruce became a planter in Mississippi, and a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, and Sheriff and Tax Collector for Bolivar County from 1872-1875. Bruce was then elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, where he served from March 4 1875 - March 3 1881. Bruce was the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In 1881 Bruce was appointed by President James Garfield as the Register of the Treasury. Bruce then went on to serve as the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Colombia from 1891-1893, returning to the office of Register of the Treasury from 1897 until his death on March 17, 1898. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |